Mike Bridge at the World Triathlon Champs, Vancouver

World Triathlon Championships, Vancouver, Canada - Saturday June 7th 2008

Age Group 25-29 

On arrival in Canada it was obvious this was not the sun drenched paradise I was hoping for. Quite the opposite, it was 9°C and raining, the sea was apparently freezing as well.
In the swim familiarisation I found out just how cold 11°C feels. Before leaving I was worried about sharks, I realised after 800m that it was more likely to be polar bears.
The build up to race day had a decidedly disorganized feel to it and it was a foretaste of things to come.
Race day arrived and it was the by now traditional 9°C and yes raining, but what was this? Something new? Indeed the wind was howling! I love Vancouver! I made my way to the race site and mingled amongst the nervous masses. The Australians were conspicuous by the fact that they insisted that the water was far too cold to swim in and that the swim should be cancelled.
The water was very choppy but no more so than a rough British seaside. This secretly made me very happy. In a calm sea I would get say four to five mins over the weaker swimmers (usually the best cyclists) but in a rough, cold sea that could easily stretch to ten mins. Plus the fact they would be unable to work hard enough in the swell to keep warm and thus get out in a much colder, less coherent state.
None of this was to be. The swim was cancelled. I won’t dwell on the poor organisation that led to this, but suffice to say Canadians should never try to organise drinking competition in a brewery! With the swim now replaced with a short 3k run, my chances were drastically slashed.
I started flat out on the first run with the hope of opening up as big a gap as is possible in 3km. I stayed in the top ten and went out onto the bike in eight place. However as the 3km took only 7.45 mins (a tad short I think), the gap between first and one hundredth could have been no more than twenty to thirty seconds. This was soon eaten up on the bike resulting in a huge one hundred man bike pack.
Every athlete now had to decide whether to stay within the rules or to draft (there should be a seven metre gap between all riders). It was practically impossible to avoid drafting but some people had blatantly decided that they weren’t even going to try. In particular the Ozzies, New Zealanders and Mexicans seemed to think this was a bike race.
As the older age groups came onto the course it became increasingly interesting, it also led to some hilarious crashes and outbreaks of international road rage, particularly aimed at the Mexicans who obviously don’t have corners on their roads.
I had no idea where I was placed when I went into the second run which was 10km. I decided to run it as fast as I could and hope for the best. As I completed my first lap I could not help noticing the crazy Mexicans had finished despite having never overtaken me!

I overtook several members of team Australia, who were (I found after) annoyed having been given a penalty for drafting, which involved lifting their bikes above their heads! As I passed, one of them exclaimed “that’s it now; even the Pomms are overtaking us. I’m going to the pub”. He then promptly stopped!
My watch said I had run a 34 minute 10km (a little short I think) which was a good time for me. However I cannot give you my accurate finishing time or position due to the fact that the timing chips seem to have thrown up some strange results. Also several people only ran two laps of the run when three were required and God only knows what the Mexicans were doing. The times therefore must be analysed and rationalised before they are official. I would think I am top thirty but at the moment I am officially forty second. I have however gone up three places in the last two days. Any luck by the time they sort it out I’ll be the winner!
I would give great thanks to all those who lent me their support, financial, moral or in the case of my grandmother spiritual!

 

Results here

 

http://static.sportresult.com/sports/triathlon/